UB names EOC building in honor of Arthur Eve

By SUE WUETCHER

“It is no overstatement to say that the landmark new home of the EOC never would have come to fruition without Arthur Eve’s vision and tireless work.”

President Satish K. Tripathi

The UB Council on Monday unanimously approved a resolution
naming the new Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) building on the
Downtown Campus the Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Center in
honor of the former state Assembly member who was instrumental in
establishing the EOC program statewide.

UB opened the new EOC building at 555 Ellicott St. on June 14,
2013; classes began in the building last September.

UB’s EOC was one of four Urban Centers created in 1966
under SUNY supervision and funded by the governor and state
legislature — under the leadership of Eve — to provide
occupational training and college preparatory programs to
underserved populations. In 1973, the Urban Centers evolved into
the more comprehensive Educational Opportunity Centers. The current
statewide network of 10 EOCs and two Counseling and Outreach
Centers are managed by SUNY’s University Center for Academic
and Workforce Development.

Eve also was a key player in establishing the statewide
Educational Opportunity Program — which now bears his name
— which provides talented students who haven’t been
able to reach their academic goals because of educational, economic
or personal challenges an opportunity to gain admission to New York
colleges and universities.

“The origins and success of the Educational Opportunity
Program throughout all of New York State are in a large part
attributable to the work of Arthur Eve … We think it’s
fitting to name UB’s new EOC building in honor of Arthur
Eve,” council Chair Jeremy M. Jacobs said.

In introducing the resolution, President Satish K. Tripathi
noted that “we have all witnessed the role our UB EOC has
played in expanding educational and economic opportunities in our
region over the years. It is no overstatement to say that the
landmark new home of the EOC never would have come to fruition
without Arthur Eve’s vision and tireless work.”

“Naming this building in his honor would be a very fitting
tribute,” Tripathi said.

In other business, council members heard a presentation about
the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership (ISEP)
from project leader Joseph Gardella, SUNY Distinguished Professor
and John and Frances Larkin Professor of Chemistry at UB.

ISEP, a teacher-focused initiative aimed at changing how science
is taught in the Buffalo Public Schools, is funded by a five-year,
$9.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant,
awarded in 2001, expands a pilot program that was funded by the
Oishei Foundation. Core partners are UB, the Buffalo Public
Schools, Buffalo State College and the Buffalo Science Museum.

The word “interdisciplinary” was included as part of
ISEP’s title “because our idea was to use UB 2020
interdisciplinary research as a vehicle for teacher professional
development,” Gardella said. Unlike other such programs, ISEP
views “the task of the teacher is to produce classroom
materials, not to become a great researcher.”

While the idea of exposing teachers to research is an old one,
“what’s new about this is we’re not trying to
have them get papers published,” he said. “What
we’ve learned is that makes for smarter teachers, but it
doesn’t help them in the classroom, especially in high-needs
school districts” like Buffalo.

“Science and engineering” also is an important
component of the program title, Gardella said, because “there
are very few programs nationally that actually engage engineering
as engineering; not engineering to help with math and science, but
engineering as engineering.”

“We wanted to expose those science and technology teachers
to engineering thinking,” he said.

The ISEP program, he said, fundamentally starts with teacher
professional development. And teacher professional development in
high-needs school districts “is wasted money unless they have
the resources in the classroom to help them.”

While spending 10 years as a parent leader in Buffalo —
mostly in special education as both of his children were classified
as student with disabilities — Gardella said he learned about
the concept of wraparound services and support for special needs
students. ISEP applies that “continuum-of-services
strategy” to teacher professional development in which
faculty, graduate students and teachers work together. The program
also supports extended classroom and afterschool staffing with PhD
students and undergraduate service learning students from UB,
Buffalo State and other local colleges; summer student internships
at UB; and summer STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)
opportunities for middle school students. It also funds field trips
— not a trivial thing in a district where there are no funds
for field trips, Gardella pointed out.

Among the unique aspects of the program Gardella cited is that
it takes the concept of professional learning communities, in which
teachers interact to improve their content knowledge, and expands
it to go beyond face-to-face meetings to also use social media.

There is a research component of ISEP — NSF funds
research; it does not fund service to school districts, Gardella
noted —and that aspect is led by Xiufeng Liu, professor in
the Department of Learning and Instruction, Graduate School of
Education.

Gardella said Liu’s research team will answer four key
questions: How do science teachers’ conceptions of
interdisciplinary inquiry grow? How do they translate that into the
classroom? How do the professional learning communities help? How
do UB STEM students develop an understanding of and ability to
communicate science to middle school and high school science
teachers and students?

In other business at Monday’s meeting:

Nancy Wells, vice president for development and alumni
relations, gave an update on various fundraising efforts regarding
the medical school. UB has raised about half of its $50 million
target for private fundraising to support construction of the
medical school. That is part of a broader, $200 million fundraising
goal to support the medical school, for which it has raised $115.1
million. She also reported the Law School has raised $21.8 million
of its $30 campaign million goal. That campaign will fund a wide
range of initiatives designed to help the school achieve a top 50
ranking.

Tripathi briefed council members on Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo’s executive budget for 2014-15, noting it includes
“some good news and some challenges.” While the budget
includes $50 million to support UB’s
new partnership with the New York Genome Center,
it does not include money to fund negotiated pay increases in the
recently approved United University Professions contract —
which in three years (the contract runs from 2011-16) could cost UB
as much as $21 million, Tripathi said, “and have a major
impact on our UB 2020 plans.” UB is working with members of
the New York State legislative delegation to have those funds
included in the final budget, he said. In addition, although the
budget includes $61 million for critical maintenance, that’s
not enough to make up for the lack of such funding the past few
years, he said.

Tripathi also reported that LP Ciminelli Construction Inc. has
been awarded the bid on the first phase of construction for the new
medical school building on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. For
more details,read
the story in this week’s issue.

Provost Charles F. Zukoski told council members that the team
of evaluators from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education
will be on campus March 30 through April 2. The visit by the team
is one of the final steps in the reaccreditation process. At the
end of the visit, the team will provide the campus with an oral
summary of its major findings and recommendations. A formal
accreditation decision by the full Middle States commission is
expected in June.